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Monday, November 30, 2009

Everything 'Funk'd Up At City Hall: Cauthen Seeking Hearing?

It's official: While we enjoy our local paper, when it comes to Kansas City political news, TKC's tipsters are starting to make The Kansas City Star look elitist and out of place (see: The Pitch). Or is it that The Star just refuses to post on the 'Funk'd up situation at City Hall?

Either way, TKC is reporting that, as expected by everyone except the Mayor's office, Wayne Cauthen may seek a charter mandated public hearing. Additionally, TKC tipsters are reporting that Mayor Funkhouser's office is seeking a judicial resolution to keep the trial from being public.

In other words: If this is the case, The Mayor is actively seeking to stop you the taxpayer from knowing the details as to why he made this move that will most definitely cost the city a lot of money.

In the post, TKC writes:

"I hoped that the City Manager would take his money and ride off into the sunset (Denver) . . . But it looks like Kansas City could get one, last good show out of the Cauthen. A public trial certainly does shed a bit of perspective on the Black Clergy mobilizing into action last week . . . And despite Cauthen's constant screw-ups I have no doubt that there will be a significant contingent of people willing to support him in public considering his ongoing support from not only the suits (developers) but also certain leaders in the African-American community.

So . . . If folks at City Hall don't succeed in getting Cauthen's hearing in private . . . The move to suspend the City Manager that was described as "secretive" and a "palace coup" could certainly backfire.

With 6 City Council people embarrassed over the Cauthen ouster and certain elements of Kansas City's political establishment feeling irrelevant or slighted . . . IF Cauthen gets a public trial, it most certainly will be ugly."

What a great post by Kansas City's most popular and controversial blogger. Fact is, this looks to turn into a real ugly situation for City Hall, and anyone could have predicted it. To no surprise the move was handled at best unprofessional and amateur--two of the defining characteristics of this mayor and his team. Which is exactly why we are confused as to why 6 City Council members backed the mayor on this one?

We understand their probable distaste for Wayne Cauthen, but did they even ask how the mayor was going to make this move? Did they not expect his team to 'Funk' it up? Did they not expect to get hung out to dry on this one? Did they really expect to gain political capital by supporting Funkhouser --who has none--on this one? Is there a solid reason why they supported Funkhouser on this one? If so, why did they choose to stay quiet on this one too instead of informing their voters of the decision they took on their district's behalf?

What were they thinking?

Reality check for the 6 City Council who 'got the Funk':Wayne Cauthen--while not the most popular--still has more political capital than Mark Funkhouser.

Mayor Funkhouser's political capital is the equivalent of the Zimbabwean Dollar--That means you want to stay away from it like H1N1!

Let's get something straight. We aren't saying that our council members should not work with this mayor. We are saying, when it comes to petty political games, this mayor thinks about as much as a cooked turkey--in other words he doesn't at all.

Thanks to that lack of common sense, the mayor does not have a political future----we should mention his wife also helping take a wrecking ball to it. Not to mention, their ability to trust him or use him come election day is about slim to none. So why jump on board in the name of games and gamble with theirs too? Especially when they don't have solid information to take home to their constituents--or at least enough information for them to confidently speak out immediately.